This invention relates to a cryosurgical clamp particularly adapted for necrotizing cutaneous lesions cryosurgically.
The presence of acrochordon (also called xe2x80x9cpapillomatous cutaneous lesionsxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9ccutaneous tagsxe2x80x9d, or xe2x80x9cskin tagsxe2x80x9d) is quite common in persons who are at least middle aged. For simplicity, reference will be had to xe2x80x9cskin tagsxe2x80x9d herein. When skin tags are relatively new, they respond quite well to medication, such as steroid-based creams or ointments. However, when skin tags have matured for many months or years, the response to medication is less satisfactory. For this reason, it has been known to use various surgical methods to excise tags, including knife surgery, cautery and cryosurgery. In the past, hemostat-type clamps have been adapted to be cooled with cryogenic gases or liquids, and utilized to necrotize cutaneous lesions. However, in most instances, one hand of the surgeon is required to position and manipulate the lesion which is to be necrotized, either with his fingers or with a tweezer or clamp, while the other hand is utilized to manipulate the cryosurgical instrument in use. Cryosurgical clamps known to the prior art do not lend themselves for single-handed use, since typically one hand is required to support and manipulate the cryogen source, and another hand is required to manipulate the clamp itself. Another problem with prior cryosurgical clamps is that the mating surfaces of the jaws are rather wide, thereby precluding a narrow, sharp surgical margin.
Objects of the invention include provision of a cutaneous cryosurgical clamp which is easily operated, along with the cryogenic source, with one hand; and a cryosurgical clamp which provides a very sharp surgical margin.
According to the present invention, a cutaneous cryosurgical clamp which utilizes a hand-held cryosurgical instrument as a source comprises mating clamp jaws, each jaw mounted on and fed cryogenic fluid by a corresponding feed tube, the two feed tubes being non-parallel with respect to each other and joined by a spacer which when drawn toward the user will bring the jaws of the clamp together for use. In accordance further with the invention, the jaws are chisel shaped, thereby providing for a sharp surgical margin parallel with a general skin surface upon which a lesion to be necrotized has grown.
The clamp of the invention is easy to use, and has no working parts that are subject to becoming frozen (and therefore inoperable), as a consequence of the very low temperatures attendant its use.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in the light of the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.